I have a project for a friend’s hair salon where the need is to build a shelf for shampoo bottles. To accomplish this to her specifications, I need to drill 6” holes straight down on a plywood surface angled at 45 degrees. I cannot figure out a way to do this. Help!

29 replies so far

is the shelf horizontal or at an angle ? I am envisioning a horizontal shelf that they can put the bottles in the hole at an angle.so I am thinking only the top and bottom of the hole has to be beveled. (right ??)the front of the hole would be 45 on the top and the back of the hole would be 45 underneath ?

to simplify matters, I would try to talk her into the tri-angle shelf
like this

Ouch, that’s not going to be fun that big of hole. Do you have a jig saw? I’d probably use a jig saw with circle cutting jig(easy to make from scraps), and slowly cut the holes, angling the jig saw foot 45 degrees at the top and bottom of cut, then use some rasps to clean up the holes/angles.

Scroll saw with table tilted using a spiral blade? The spiral blade allows you to cut in any direction so you don’t have to turn the piece as you cut around the circle which would leave the angle in the same orientation throughout the cut. I’ve never used one at that extreme of an angle so not sure how well it will work or how much room you actually have to cut a 3/4” board at 45 degrees on a scroll saw.

Personally, I like John’s idea of tilting the board and not the hole.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

is the shelf horizontal or at an angle ? I am envisioning a horizontal shelf that they can put the bottles in the hole at an angle.so I am thinking only the top and bottom of the hole has to be beveled. (right ??)the front of the hole would be 45 on the top and the back of the hole would be 45 underneath ?

to simplify matters, I would try to talk her into the tri-angle shelf
like this

A circle at an angle makes an ellipse. I think. You could draw this out on the workpiece, cut with jigsaw or router or whatever you want, then clean up and bevel the edges with a rasp.

- JohnMcClure

Good call. Here is what I would do after thinking about it. Go to the big box store and buy a short cutoff of 6” plastic pipe (abs, pvc, whatever), HD near me carries them in a “cart” in the plumbing aisles. Cut that at 45 degrees on the chop saw. Then use it to trace out the holes and cut with jig saw and clean up with rasps.

I had to drill some corner braces on some 4×4”s so they would accept a lag bolt with a washer and be counter sunk I drilled a hole in a scrap piece of 4×4 to accept the washer, the lag bolt would be easy after I drilled the hole I cut the 4×4 at a 45 deg through the 4×4 dissecting my drilled hole I would set the 45 deg cut face onto the brace the drilling block would support the forstner bit from walking and would give me a perfect recess for my washer they were nice looking braces. I’m sure this method would work for a holesaw also.

-- A friend will help you move, a good friend will help you move a body

Yes the lower portion of your picture is the 4×4 drilled all the way through then bisected at 45 deg’s holding the 45 deg cut to the work piece as shown at the top of your picture this will allow the hole saw to be guided into the piece at the correct angle of course for a 6” hole saw your block would have to be wider than a 4×4 thanks for the drawing.

-- A friend will help you move, a good friend will help you move a body

This line of posts have validated what I suspected – there isn’t a quick and easy way to knock this out. I’ll be building the shelf so I will have full access to the board and ability to manipulate as necessary. On the down side, I need to make 16 (yes 16) of these holes along a board to hold 16 bottles. I think the idea that works best for my application is to cut out a template from an old bottle, cut with a jigsaw, then clean up with a rasp. This wont be a quick method, however it will get me where I need to be. Thank you everyone for the replies.